Q: I am looking to purchase the latest ISO 9001:2008 Quality management systems–Requirements. However, in the past, ISO 9004:2000 Managing for the sustained success of an organization — A quality management approach, included the ‘requirements’ of ISO 9001 in boxes as a reference in ISO 9004 (used for implementation assistance). Is that still the case? I would much rather buy the revision, ISO 9004:2009 if the ISO 9001 requirements were in the standard…it’d be one less standard to have around.
A: We have consistently promoted the concept that ISO 9004 is NOT an implementation guide to ISO 9001. It is designed to provide guidance to organizations that desire to go beyond meeting minimum requirements towards achieving higher levels of performance.
There is much that is required of organizations today to sustain themselves and the next edition did try to focus on addressing issues that were essential to sustainability, perhaps at the expense of revisiting the old ground of content related to 9001 compliance which, by now, have become well understood by many organizations.
So, ISO 9004 is about going beyond ISO 9001. ISO 9004 is still consistent with ISO 9001, but it places more intensity on going beyond and less on hard line-by-line congruence.
Charlie Cianfrani
Consulting Engineer
Green Lane Quality Management Services
Green Lane, PA
ASQ Fellow; ASQ CQE, CRE, CQA, RABQSA Certified QMS-Auditor (Q3558)
ASQ Quality Press Author
For more on this topic, please visit ASQ’s website.